A charity organization has found a way to combine one of college students' favorite activities — spending time on the Internet — with a cause that can change the lives of the world's poor.
PovertyFighters.com, an Internet-based organization that, according to its website, is dedicated to "giving poor families the chance they need to work out of poverty," began its third annual Oxfam Collegiate Click Drive on Feb. 14.
The drive, which lasts until March 26, is a competition among colleges across the country to earn the most money by clicking on PovertyFighters' website up to twice a day.
With each click, the website's sponsors donate $0.25 for "microloans" to help would-be entrepreneurs in the developing world become self-sufficient.
Casey Passmore '05 has been involved with the drive since its inception in the spring of 2002. A self-described daily click site junkie, she was already familiar with drives that raised money when she and Jennifer De Sante '05 decided to work together to involve the University in the 2002 and 2003 drives.
"Princeton's done really well in the past drives, placing in the top 10 or 15," Passmore said. "We've contributed a fair amount of money."
Publicity for the drive at the University has increased steadily because of Passmore and De Sante's emails to friends in Butler College and University organizations and fliers around campus.
"The SVC and Women's Center have been very helpful [in publicizing the drive]," Passmore said. She said she also hopes to obtain approval to send an email to the entire student body encouraging students to participate in the competition.
This year Passmore is sharing organization and promotional duties with Nick Kessides '05.
The click drive is sponsored by Oxfam America, an organization committed to fighting hunger and poverty. The donated money is used by microlenders and microcredit charities in developing countries. These organizations "give people a hand up, not a hand out, by loaning them money to start their own little businesses," according to PovertyFighters' website.
The microlenders make small, low-interest "microloans" ranging from $20 to $250 to those who are too poor to borrow money from banks, Passmore said.
"The money is used to buy a cow or a sewing machine," she added.
The loan recipients pay back the loans from the money they make with the aid of their new wares: selling the cow's milk, for example, or sewing clothes with a machine rather than by hand.
The loan recipients are divided into groups of about twenty people, Passmore said. Group members are responsible for supporting and motivating each other to pay back their loans.
Passmore said students can visit the website, www.povertyfighters.com, up to twice a day to fight poverty and represent Princeton.
She also said that while the collegiate competition lasts only a month, students can click all year long to donate money.
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